


Fighting to Make Sense

by thehelldoievenputhere



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Purgatory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-03-16 01:59:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13626174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehelldoievenputhere/pseuds/thehelldoievenputhere
Summary: Gabriel wakes up after Lucifer killed him and discovers he's in Purgatory.





	1. Chapter 1

Gabriel woke with a groan. He couldn't believe that Lucifer had actually tried to _kill_  him! Gabriel was just trying to distract him to let the Winchesters escape with a plan to defeat Lucifer. He hadn't been trying to kill him. Lucifer, even though he was the devil, was still his _brother_. He supposed he was lucky that it was just a normal angel blade, not his archangel one he had been using.

A clash of sound had him coming to his senses and paying attention to his surroundings. He opened his eyes and sat up. Wherever he was, it felt different from Earth. As he looked around he saw trees. And trees. And trees. The light was different from anywhere on Earth, too.

A snarl had him whipping his head around and jerking into a defensive crouch. Through the treeline broke a rabid form, snarling teeth reflecting the bleak light of the surroundings.

The teeth that were far too numerous for a human's mouth. Suddenly, everything made sense. He was in Purgatory. But, why was he in Purgatory?

 _Shit_ \--no time for that. He rolled to the side away from the vampire and out of his crouch up on to his feet. The vampire that he had managed to evade turned and made for him again. Gabriel swore very creatively in all the languages he knew (all that had ever been in existence) and ducked below the vampire's outstretched arms. Gabriel could do this. It was just a vampire--he was an archangel who had been masquerading as a pagan god for millennia. Sure, he may be injured, but not that bad-- _shit!_

He had to pay attention to this. Why did he keep getting distracted? Maybe he had a concussion. Could he get a concussion? _Shit--not now_.

He ducked away again and reached for the vampire's neck as it ran past him. He managed to connect and the vampire went down with all his force behind the blow. Gabriel waited a second and then, when the vamp didn't get back up, he poked at it with his foot. It didn't react, so he pushed his foot against its side and turned it over. It still didn't react. Gabriel crouched and poked it, and then pried its eyes open with his fingers. It was lifeless. Had he managed to kill it? At least for the brief period that things in Purgatory could be dead--double dead?

Another snarl had him jolting his head back up and reminded him that this was by no means the only thing here that would want to kill him. He couldn't stay here. He had to get out of immediate danger and make a plan. An archangel in a place full of not just the types of monsters that the Winchesters hunted, but also leviathans. It was honestly luck to have not been found by any of them yet. They had a personal grudge against him. After all, he had been one of the ones to imprison them in here. And they did seem like the types of monsters to hold grudges.

He needed to find a place that he could make a base of operations that could easily be defended so he could put up wards. Then he could figure all the other stuff out. High ground was always easily defended, so that was where he would be headed. He looked around, but couldn't see anything except trees, and no change in elevation in any direction he looked. There was no way for him to know which way was the best, not without time to figure out if his grace was at least not too badly injured, and to figure out if he could risk using it without drawing the leviathans' attention to him.

So he picked a direction and started walking. There was no point wasting energy on running, he didn't know how far he would have to go, and he didn't know what the terrain would be like or how likely he was to trip over it. He couldn't risk using his grace to find out, so he kept to walking, even if it was quickly.

He kept on in the direction he had picked, and managed to continue for a while without running into any interruptions. Of course, his luck couldn't hold out. Wouldn't hold out. He knew that.

After a while, he heard twigs snapping, snarling, and the clash of stone weapons. He paused momentarily, and tried to decide whether it was worth choosing a different direction to head in, but just as he was about to, he saw a head rolling towards him... it was obviously a casualty from the battle he could hear, but what made it significant was the fact that it was rolling downhill. If he kept going, he would start going up. That was in fact quite possibly why the fight seemed to be at least a moderately large scale battle, involving many participants. It may have been a battle for high ground.

So Gabriel decided to continue onward, hoping he could at least arm himself before he came to the battle site. He proceeded more cautiously than before, being extra careful not to step on anything that could make a sound and give away his presence here. Hopefully, they would be too engaged in the battle to notice him with any 'enhanced' senses they may possess, but it would be remiss of him to ignore the possibility.

He carefully edged his way forward. As the sound became louder, he started attempting to estimate how many were involved in the fight. He counted the blade strikes, and accounted for vampire-like speed. If his maths skills hadn't gone to shit in the centuries since he had had to use them, he estimated that there had to be at least twenty fighters. Hopefully, he could find a weapon, maybe from one of those already dead from the battle.

The battle entered his sight and he took it in while crouched behind a tree. There were about twenty fighters, but there were also others standing out of the way looking ready to jump in at a moment's notice, presumably to take the place of any fallen warriors. He found it surprising that packs had managed to be formed well enough in Purgatory that they were able to plan and execute battle tactics such as that. Gabriel had always thought of Purgatory as chaos. Just... mindless chaos with monsters eternally battling it out.

On the edges of the clearing there were bodies that seemed to have been hastily thrown there from the midst of the battle, probably so the current fighters wouldn't trip over them. It was there that Gabriel focused his sight, searching for a weapon of any kind.

 _There!_ He caught sight of the strange light glinting off of the polished stone of the weapons fashioned in Purgatory. It was next to the body of a werewolf not all that far away from where Gabriel was hiding. Upon closer inspection, he could see it was chiselled into a blade-like shape. He crept forward as stealthily as he could manage, but not wanting to go too slowly, as things in Purgatory only stayed dead for a limited amount of time--rather like the Winchesters, actually. It was pretty funny, comparing the Winchesters to what they hunted, they'd probably put a rather large number of the inhabitants of Purgatory in here themselves-- _but!_ That wasn't the point, and now wasn't the time.

He stretched his arm out and clasped his hand around the weapon he had spotted, and not a moment too soon. One of the outliers had spotted him, and attacked. Gabriel managed to roll away and swung the weapon up as he did, hitting his attacker square in the forehead and splitting its face in half. Apparently, he still had his strength.

But, the altercation had drawn the attention of the other standbys, and they shouted out--both to him and those engaged in the battle. He was past any hope of getting past them without notice, then. He immediately adopted a defensive crouch, readied his weapon, and they were on him.

He swung the blade this way and back that way. There was no time for planning his next action, even as an archangel, it was him against at least thirty bodies intent on ending him, not much caring for their own life--what was life in Purgatory, anyway? It was drab and boring, and it wasn't like they'd stay out for long, anyway. They'd be back, soon enough.

So Gabriel just swung the weapon from side to side, while ducking and dodging from the attacks he saw coming. It was hard going. He didn't have an ideal position, and he couldn't use his powers to simply smite them all.

He jabbed the blade forwards into the abdomen of a werewolf and jerked it back towards him, only to jerk it right to slice a vampire's head clean(ish) off. The hoard in front him was diminishing, and those remaining were having trouble getting to him over the bodies of the fallen. He could do this.

Then he felt something behind him. He span, blade singing its way through the air to find its way into a wendigo's chest. Gabriel spun back in time to see the coming attack from a rawhead and duck out of the way. He stabbed forwards and caught it on the end of his blade.

His remaining opponents had cleared away some of the bodies between them away while he had been preoccupied. Then it was back to battle. They came at him again, but this time there were significantly less of them, and he took little time to dispatch the remainder of them.

Gabriel looked around and took in the carnage of the clearing he was in. He realised he had been right. He could see a definite incline in the direction he had already been headed. He walked through the clearing, stopping to pick up any weapons he found interesting or had a particular proficiency with and strapping them onto him with scraps torn from the dead's clothing. At the edge of the clearing, he turned back, just to make sure that there was no movement from any of the creatures currently dead. There wasn't. He turned back and headed uphill.

He trekked upwards for quite some time, until eventually he came to the end of the trees. From there he could see the summit.

There had definitely been others who had thought the same as him, it had already been fortified beyond natural means. Someone had moved rocks and boulders to form a high wall and he could see no entrance form where he stood. Unsure whether it was inhabited or not, Gabriel stuck to the treeline as he circled around it, assessing the defences and searching for an easy entrance and any clue on its status.

He saw no difference on any of the sides and no entrance. He couldn't spot any signs of habitation, but took it with a pinch of salt, as they may just be laying low to see what he would do. It would definitely be easily defended, but he couldn't sense any wards present. Why that was, he didn't speculate.

He took a couple of steps out of the trees and hesitated there, to see if there was any reaction. There wasn't. So he took a few more steps. Still nothing.

He continued like this up to the structure. He ran his hand along the stone wall and felt no gaps in the stone indicating a possible entrance, so he took a few steps back, bent his knees and jumped. He landed on the top of the wall, crouching down to steady himself, though it was barely needed. He straightened quickly and looked down. There was a walkway just a bit below him, like castles and forts often had on Earth, and he jumped down onto it. Considering no one had come to greet him, pleasantly or not, he was left to assume that it was abandoned as he had hoped.

He spotted what he thought may be a trapdoor in a corner, and made his way there. He was right. He opened it, and saw stone steps leading down to darkness. He started down them, and saw a torch part way down, which he took and then struck against the wall to light it. Before he made his way any further, he turned and closed the trapdoor above him.


	2. Chapter 2

Gabriel reached the bottom of the steps and looked around the corridor that emerged at the bottom. He could see from the torch light that it was a fairly narrow corridor, and he could see that the stone walls on either were rough, and someone had simply placed stone upon stone to build them. There was no support or any type of glue to hold it all together. He walked forwards, through the narrow corridor, observing every single detail of the walls as he passed. He walked for a little while, in a straight line, following the corridor, not coming to any junctions or exits.

He came to the end of the line, and turned right, presumably at the corner of the makeshift fort. He carried on walking, and eventually arrived back at the stairwell from which he had first descended from. He had seen no sign of exit or further entry into the building, and that led him to believe that it could only be accessed through other, possibly magical, means. That could be a problem, as if he used the wrong method or spell, he could end up alerting whoever had originally set the system up. This was turning out to be a far from ideal place to set up camp. Sure, once he had set up, it would no doubt be near on impenetrable, but that was a while away. He didn't have that time. He knew that the leviathan would have noticed his energy almost immediately upon him entering Purgatory, and he had already been here and conscious for a while, not counting however long it had taken for him to wake up. The fact that he had not yet been attacked by them was indicative of the probability that they were forming plans and tactics to ensure they got him with minimal injury and maximum efficiency. He didn't have much time before they were upon him. He had to get safe behind wards strong enough to hide him from everyone, even Dad, if He wasn't looking. It was his only hope. And he had to do it now.

So, he turned his attention to the outer wall of what he would make do as the north side of the fort. He grabbed a blade he had picked up that was most similar in shape to an angel blade, and found the centre point of the wall, lifted his arm up, and started carving. He was a little wary, never having actually used these wards in practice, he only had a very limited time slot to complete this outer layer of warding, it had to be completed from start to finish in 10 seconds. But he didn't have time for any doubts right now, so he carved the symbol, too complex to be described in a human language into the wall. Then he stepped back, and made his way counter-clockwise, to what would be his east, and drew a similar looking symbol that was radically different in purpose. Half way done. He could do this. On what was his south wall, he carved an inverted symbol of the one on his north wall. Just one left. He approached his west wall and carved the inverted symbol than that on his east wall, and he was done, just in time. He could now focus on gaining entry into the inner depths of the fort, now that he had temporarily protected himself. It was by no means a permanent solution, as all he had to do was leave the walls and he would be outside the protection, but it was something, at least.

He turned his focus back to the inner walls of the corridor, and scrutinised it. There had to be some sort of distinguishing mark to at least mark where the entrance was, if not how to get in. So Gabriel set to work, examining every millimetre of the wall, trying to discern even the slightest of differences in the surface of the wall. Of course, that wasn't simple, as the wall was made by rock piled upon rock, no flat, polished surface, but natural, rough-hewn rock face. It took several rotations around the entire structure, each time focusing on a separate facet of the wall. There was the colouring, the texture, the shape, and the composition of the rocks, not to mention countless others. Eventually he discovered an anomaly. It was not one thing that was different, but a combination of different factors that made him certain that this particular rock marked the entrance. The fact it was so well hidden also told him something about the person or persons (but probably just person, he was in Purgatory, after all), and that would help him figure out how to get in.

He probed at the rock, both with his hands, his weapons, and a small tendril of grace. He sat there, staring at the wall for what felt like hours, until he finally decided to test a theory out. He turned his gaze towards his assembly of weapons, and chose one almost hook-like in shape. He inserted the end into the deepest crevice surrounding this rock, and started poking around with it. It took a couple of seconds before he heard something click, and the rock slid in. Now there was a hole in the wall just about large enough for him to slide through on his belly, the problem now was that he couldn't see what was on the other side, and being careful to not disrupt the surrounding rocks, which would be difficult, considering he had to jump up a little to get to it. He took a deep breath, even though he didn't need it, and jumped.

He crawled through the entrance, and almost felt his heart skip a beat at the sight that met his eyes, he would have, except for the fact that he didn't have a heartbeat because he was an archangel, and because he was maybe dead.

In front of his eyes was an impossibility. It was Heaven. And not just in the figurative sense, or at least, it didn't feel that way. He was in Purgatory, Heaven shouldn't exist here. And yet, in front of him was a garden with grass so green that it didn't seem real. There was also a variety of flora from a variety of different climates, none of which should exist in Purgatory. He didn't understand.

The rock beneath him moving broke him from his mind. He inched back out from the hole to grab the weapons he had left then reentered, and dropped to the ground. The rock moved behind him to close up the hole left in the wall that from this side looked like an advertisement for wall plants. He took a fortifying, but unnecessary, breath and stepped forward and turned to fully take in the sight before him.

Now that he was properly paying attention, he could tell that this wasn't actually Heaven, or any part of it, but that still didn't explain it. But then he noticed a niggling on the edges of his senses, that felt like intricate spellwork, and it made sense. There was an enchantment around the place so anyone who entered would see and feel their home. And of course, that was what he would see, Heaven in its simplicity. No one around to fight and ruin the tranquillity. but at the same time, there was no one around to hear. There was no singing, no chatter between the siblings that he loved so much but had changed so much. And like that, the illusion was broken, and he saw the place for what it really was: a foyer with paths branching out from it, clearly an elaborate network, and he was not quite sure how to feel about the loss of the first he had seen of Heaven in far too many years, so he pushed it to the side and focused his energy on exploring the rest of the fort so he could properly _fort_ ify its defences. He wanted to know his capabilities and how badly injured--if at all--he was as soon as he could, but he didn't want to risk it with the current warding, because he could accidentally break it, and then the leviathan would be on him within moments.

Gabriel picked a path, and walked down it. It ended up a dead end, so apparently whoever had designed this place really was vindictive, it wasn't just difficult to enter, it was also difficult find anywhere that lead somewhere. He checked the wall in front of him for any possibility of there being a hidden room behind, but he saw none. He turned and made his way back to the foyer before picking another path to make his way down. That one, too, led to a dead end. He checked again, but could sense no hidden aspect of it. He repeated this process multiple times, all with the same result, until he only had one path left unexplored. He turned and made his way down it.


	3. Chapter 3

Gabriel swerved, barely avoiding crashing into Raphael mid-flight

"Sorry!"

They didn't have time for any hassle, they were barely holding on as it was. Gabriel ducked and swerved through what seemed like a writhing mass of pure, undiluted rage until ne saw Michael.

"Michael!"

"Gabriel? What are you doing?"

"Parent has something Xe wants to discuss with you. Xe says it's urgent!"

"I will go see what Xe wants now. Tell Lucifer and Raphael where I have gone." Gabriel watched Michael fly off the way ne had just come from. Gabriel turned and flew onward to where ne could see Lucifer fighting, light glinting off the silver metal of nir blade. Once ne had told nem, Lucifer pushed nem down and out of the way of an attack.

"Go! Tell Raphael!" So Gabriel flew on, toward where ne could _feel_  Raphael. Once again, Gabriel announced the knowledge ne had, but this time, instead of dodging or being pushed out of the way, ne felt a pain lancing through nir side.

"Gabriel!"

 

"Ne came to slowly, surroundings blurring in and out of focus, before coming to rest on Raphael.

"What--what happened?" Ne tried to get up, only for Raphael to push nem back down again.

"You got struck. Try not to move, you'll undo my work," Raphael said, tone soft. Gabriel winced, the pain only just making itself known. "You were lucky. Lucifer saw it happen and came to guard my back so I could tend to you. I managed to get you stabilised before moving anywhere. We got you back here to rest and so I could do a more in depth healing."

Gabriel looked around. "Where _is_  here, anyway?"

"It is the healing room in our new home. Parent said it is called Heaven."

"Why is it so big? There are only four of us; we don't take up this much room."

"I don't know. I'm sure Parent has a reason. Xe always does," Raphael said.

"Gabriel!" Twin voices, sounding equally desperate, came from the entryway. Gabriel and Raphael both turned to look, though they had no need to see who it was.

"How is ne?" Michael directed the question to Raphael.

"Ne is healing, and no permanent damage was done. It is only a matter of how fast ne heals."

"I'm right here, you do know?"

"And 'here' is in Raphael's care so I will trust nir with a _truthful_  response as to your well being." Gabriel huffed. Ne wasn't a fledgling anymore! Lucifer laughed and made nir way closer to Gabriel.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine! I am ready to go now!" Nir words were met with three identical _looks_ , telling nem that nir answer was not appreciated. "Raphie's a really good healer, I'm _fine_."

"You absolutely are not, and if that is your attitude, then you can very well remain here until you are fully recovered as I clearly cannot trust you to take it easy." Gabriel deflated at Raphael's words. So much for getting out of here quickly. Ne turned to Michael.

"What did Parent want?" Michael took a moment to collect nemself after the sudden change in subject.

"Xe has a plan to defeat them. It will take all of us, and a new construct of Xyrs, but it should be possible." With that, Gabriel no longer held the attention of the room. With a plan they could finally defeat the Leviathans once and for all.

"What is the plan?" Lucifer was an excellent strategist.

"Parent is creating somewhere to hold them all, and then we will just have to get them all in it and lock it." It sounded so simple, but they all knew it would be far from. Making the Leviathans do anything they didn't want to was impossible. But it was something, and Gabriel said so.

"Do you know how long until Parent has finished and it is our part left to do?" Lucifer was the best of them at creating elaborate plans for them to execute.

"Parent said it would be done soon, so it is only a matter of time."

"Gabriel will have to have fully recovered before we attempt anything. How long do you think, Raphael?"

"It should not take too long. It was a deep wound, but it missed anything important."

"Okay, so when the time comes..."

 

Gabriel fully healed and Parent's new construct complete, it was time to put their plan into action. Gabriel was up first.

Ne approached nir them, trying to appear as if ne was not aware of their proximity. Ne was the one who did the least fighting, so they would assume that ne was the most vulnerable, and hopefully pursue nem until it was too late to fall back.

They noticed nem, and Gabriel acted as though ne had also just noticed them, and froze. Once ne clearly held all their attention, Gabriel turned and appeared to flee. They took chase. Gabriel flew straight, no point in attempting any manoeuvres to evade them, as there was nothing to dodge around, nothing to hide behind, nothing to try and make them hit. They were in the Void.

Gabriel was quickly coming to the end of the Void and to where nir siblings were waiting. Ne glanced back to check the Leviathan were still following, and--yep. A bit too close for comfort. Ne pivoted and sped up.

Michael and Lucifer flanked them, Raphael bringing up the rear, causing the Leviathans to realise that it had been a trap. But it was just an instant too late, as they were through the entrance to Parent's newest construct, Purgatory. The Leviathans lashed out, but they were prepared. Gabriel spun to the side and out of the way as Raphael blocked their exit. Michael and Lucifer attacked from the sides, and the Leviathans only escape option was forwards, further into Purgatory, as they did not excel at close quarter combat, and Raphael was fierce, and fiercer still when Gabriel joined nem in blocking the exit. Michael and Lucifer fought best together, and when all four of them fought, even the Leviathans recognised the futility. They fled inwards. The archangels flew out and locked the entrance up tight behind them. Only Parent could open it back up.

There was a moment of silence, and a look shared between them, before they broke out into laughter.

"We did it." Gabriel's voice was amazed.

"And no one got hurt!" Raphael hugged them close and they just stayed there and laughed. They had done it! They had won! Against the Leviathans! They would never have to face them again, and none of them had been hurt at any level of seriousness. They just hugged each other and laughed. They had won!

**Author's Note:**

> don't know where to go from here suggestions welcome (plz)


End file.
